🇬🇪 Tax residency in Georgia

Will half a year in Georgia put your entire global income on the table? Usually no, and that is exactly why Georgia keeps showing up on nomad shortlists.

The residency rule itself is a clean day count: 183 days of physical presence in any consecutive 12-month period makes you a Georgian tax resident. There is no elaborate ties-based override to plan around for ordinary individuals; the calendar is the test.

What residency means is the more interesting part. Georgia taxes individuals on a territorial basis in most cases: Georgian-source income is taxed, and foreign-source income is generally outside the net. If you live in Tbilisi and invoice clients in the US or the EU, that income is typically not Georgian-taxable. Where Georgian-source income is taxed, the flat personal rate is 20%. The practical caveat is sourcing: what counts as Georgian-source is a legal question, not a gut call, and work physically performed in Georgia can be characterised as Georgian-source depending on the arrangement, so anyone relying on the territorial treatment for their main income should confirm how their specific setup is sourced.

The regime most nomads actually use is Individual Entrepreneur status with small business treatment: register as an IE, and annual turnover up to GEL 500,000 (roughly USD 185,000 at the rates that have held since 2023) is taxed at 1% of turnover. Note that it is 1% of turnover, not profit, so a high-expense business can fare worse than the headline suggests. Going over the threshold is not an immediate loss of status: turnover above it is taxed at 3%, and only exceeding the limit in two consecutive years costs you the small business treatment. Most solo service work qualifies, registration is straightforward, and it gives you a clean, documented Georgian tax position, which also matters when your home country asks where you pay tax.

On treaties: whether treaty relief is available depends on whether a treaty is in force between your home country and Georgia, and the official treaty lists (Georgia Revenue Service and your home tax authority) are where to confirm before relying on one. For the United States specifically, the IRS's published position in Publication 901 is that the US-USSR income tax treaty remains in effect for Georgia, along with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, until it is replaced. How a treaty drafted for the Soviet Union applies to a modern remote-work setup is a question worth putting to a professional rather than answering from a blog post. Either way, US citizens file US returns on worldwide income regardless of where they live, and rely on the foreign earned income exclusion and foreign tax credit rules. The United Kingdom and Germany each have a double taxation treaty with Georgia.

A local Georgian accountant is worth engaging when you register as an IE, when your income mixes Georgian and foreign sources, or when the sourcing of your remote work is not obvious. The filings under the IE regime are light, so the cost is modest, and it buys you correct registration, clean monthly declarations, and early warning when the rules move.

You are unlikely to face tax on your worldwide income in Georgia, and the 1% Individual Entrepreneur regime makes it one of the most attractive documented tax homes available to nomads earning foreign income.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice.